Day 13. Fort William to Inverness sans Mark (Jony)

Having accompanied us to the edge of the 'northern wastes' Mark, our trusty travelling companion, has now gone off to do his own thing in the land of his forefathers in the west, aka Skye. (It's a bit like Lord of the Rings really but without Ian McKellen.)

It was great having Mark along, with his endless fund of stories of travels in China, Thailand, Laos and other exotic hotspots (though, bizarrely for such a well travelled man, he couldn't work out whether the group on the next door table were Spanish or Italian). We had a good late evening chat with some Germans and a Belgian traveller at the hostel in Ft William. 

On the ferry from Ardrossan to Arran. 

Mark wasn't chatting up the owner - he was missing his dog!

Well, actually we had a good late evening listen as Mark launched into an explanation of cricket, english humour,  Belgian cyclists, getting lost in Laos and any other number of travellers' tales - all told with M's characteristic self deprecating enthusiasm whose range, energy and quirky humour  completely entranced (=bamboozled) the visitors. 

And then our hobbity companion was gone. Less like a character from Tolkien perhaps than a pace-maker on the Tour de France, who pushed us along and then stepped aside as we surge through for the last lap. 

Ha! Who am I kidding? 

There was certainly not a lot of surging today, as we made our way up the Great Caledonian Canal, which started as Loch Lochie and changing half way along into Loch Ness. I was rather grumpy most of the day, partly because of a lack of lochside picnic sites and partly because my wheel has been making crunchy noises for a couple of days now, in sympathy with my knees perhaps.

However Jan and I agreed that some degree of 'let down' was inevitable after the glories of yesterday;  it would have been virtually impossible to better the incredible views, scenic glens, swooshy switchback roads and top hole fauna that we saw. However we  managed an hour or two of canalside riding which was nice and flat, even though Jan did get a puncture.

I rolled into Inverness v tired and feeling in need of one of Mark's reviving traveller's tales.